I started modelling “Snap Tight” models at about age 9. Moved on to glue around 11. And started building German Armor. At 13 I gave it up, found a better hobby Girls [:D] Then when I was about 22 I walked into a store sort of a small version of Walmart and found some Tamiya kits, the same ones I built as a kid. I started off with one (the Sd.Kfz. 251/1) then moved on to more and more kits. It was like my youth all over again. Finally I found a DML kit, the Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. J. I could not believe the detail of this kit (compared to the old Tamiya kits I was building). Now I was hooked. The kits kept piling up, around 80 or so is what I topped out at, I have since build, sold, or traded half of them away. So How Young were you when you started modelling? and how old when you went back to the hobby?
My dad bought me my first kit for my fifth birthday – it was an SNJ trainer molded in bright yellow plastic. No idea on the manufacturer or scale, though “Aurora” and “1/72” stand out in my so-called mind.
I’ve never entirely given it up, but took breaks during two marriages, college, and two stints at graduate school. In fact, many of my tools date back to my first “serious” time as a modeler, while in junior high and high school in the mid-'70’s.
I’ve only gotten seriously back into it since about 2005, in the wake of a second divorce. It’s great therapy, and a LOT cheaper than a shrink!
I first started at 6, I beleive my first kit was a Revell Apache Helo…but a little WWI biplane sticks out in my mind that may have been my first…I butchered all my kits and got glue everywhere…then around 14 or 15 one of my dads friends who built 1/72 scale WWII armor got me interested in it again, I took a “break” after building up a good size stash of kits, mostly 1/72 scale aircraft and armor, then just this past year I started building again, but i’ve been working mostly on 1/35 scale armor
I must have started modelling about the age of 6 or 7 with an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire. I never realy took a break from it, just other hobbies got in the way.
I’m a young gun like Tanky above. I first built a model last year at 14, and I’ll agree on that second “hobby”–girls, but you know as long as th two “hobbies” don’t meet each other, everything is allllright [:D]. Sheesh, and you guys say YOUR hobby is expensive, dificult, complicated and time consuming!
My father gave me my first kit when I was 8 or 9 for my birthday. It was a Funny Car and I remember when I opened the box and looked at the parts I was thinking how in the world do I build this mess? It was the proverbial gluebomb to put it mildly. Even though the kit was junk, I enjoyed building the model. I found the Mongram Snap-Tite kits better suited to my tastes for the next 3 or 4 years though. I finally graduated to glue kits around 12 or 13 and never looked back. While I build alot of automotive subjects, I do find myself straying now to armor and I would love to get back into building aircraft as well. I’ve been in the hobby 30 years or so now and have never really gotten out of it. I may have slowed down a bit with my building, but I never gave it up completely.
I still try to build better than my last project and do enjoy trying different subjects as well. Before I used to be content with just building cars, but I am enjoying seeing the different subjects being built now and it’s a nice change of pace to try something different now and then.
I bean building models in 1958 when I was 8 yo. I think the model was REVELL’S U.S. ARMY JEEP in 1/43rd or whatever scale. My uncle Joe had bought it for me and helped me build it. Great fun and when it was done, it rolled alnog really good. The first model that I ever painted was LINDBERG’S MERRIMACK. I used TESTOR’S paint for all of the recomended colors-gloss of course! I’ve still got the model in a box in a room next to my workshop. I look at it from time to time just for some perspective. Somedays I feel like I haven’t progressed very far from the day I built that kit.
As a professional musician, summertime keeps me too busy to sit at the table and do anything also, my worshop is on the 3rd floor(attic) and the heat is just a little to much for me. Come fall, I’ll get back to the back logged projects still on the table, some of which go back years.
I’m not really sure, but I think I was about 11 when my father bought my/his/our first model. I remember that it was a Swedish jet (Viggen perhaps) and that it could fire a missile. I also remember James Bonds Little Nellie being one of my earliest models, along with Auroras monster kits. During my teens I built most anything I could afford from 1/72 airplanes to 1/6 Tamiya motorbikes, and a lot of 1/35 AFVs and 1/24 cars.
In the mid 80’s I started to play saxophone in different bands, and building got put on ice. RPGs had me collecting and painting metal miniatures, but 95 I met my present girlfriend and it’s not until last year I started building models again, and now I’m 47.
I started with BattleTech Figures when I was 12. Eventually moved to making D&D figures. Always loved tanks and APCs and would always collect books and watch documentaries on them. Started as a result of my BattleTech habit I think. Stopped making figures when I was like 20-21.
This year I started making tank models, with my first being a Leopard II 2A5 (1/35 Tamiya) which I picked up as the Canadian army decieded to buy them this year. They bought 80-100 2A4s from the Nehterlands that I think they will only upgrade to the 2A5 models, with 20 2A6s on lease from Germany till they can get these tanks online.
Anyway this is besides the point, wanted to get back into a craft hobby so I decieded to start with armor models. I totally forgot the pleasure of making something and then admiring your handywork when done. Right now all I have to do is paint my Leopard and then I think I will do a Leclerc and a Challenger 2. Was thinking I would do all the modern tanks.
Remarkable similarities in these stories. At six years old, my first kit was an Aurora “Endangered Species” Rhino. It was snap-tite and had moveable parts. It came with a base. My brother and I painted parts of it with a felt-tip marker.
My first armor kit was a snaptite Monogram M48 Patton tank (I still see these on ebay – gotta grab me one someday). Was heavy into military stuff all growing up (Tamiya, Italeri, Monogram “Armor Series”, lots of aircraft) until HS.
During college, dabbled a little as a diversion. After college, I moved to Chgo and got back heavily into 1/72 a/c and started my “serious” phase – getting good tools and references. I developed a reputation for my complex 1/72 aircraft and I’m proud of the skills I developed there.
Moved to MI in 1995 and visited an IPMS club swapmeet. Picked up the Tamiya Jagdpanzer IV Lang for a song and haven’t looked back since. Now I’m heavily into WW2 armor, both 1/35 and 1/48 scales. I have tons and tons of references – still too many kits and accessories although I cull them 2-3 times a year with ebay.
started with revell battle ships when I was maybe 8 or 9… the Arizona and Missouri are still around. Then went to Jets and flying things… A-10, Mig 29, P47… never did get to the tomcat or spitfire i always wanted to build. Took a break and got back into it last december, when I finished a Trumpeter M60A1… the kit was crap but I had fun builiding it… my patience for building and painting have definitely improved since I was a kid… now I’m on my first serious attempt … another so-so kit, Tamiya panther A
Don’t remember the age, but I was in elementary school at the time. I started with mostly the old Aurora monster kits, moved on to cars and then spacecraft. When I got into sports, modeling went by the wayside. Just started up again about 4 years ago after about a 35 year hiatus. Now building mostly armor with a couple of aircraft thrown in for variety.
I would guess I started around 1970, give or take. My dad bought me an Aurora 1/32 scale hotrod kit called ‘The Wurst’. It was a beach type hotdog vending truck that was a retool of an old fire engine kit. I’ve since acquired one on eBay about 7-8 years ago. My dad really built that kit.
My second kit was another one that he really built. It was the Monogram 1/32 scale M48 Patton tank.
The first kits I remember building myself were Aurora’s 1/48 scale MBT70 (I still have that kit) and Aurora’s snap together Sabre Toothed Tiger kit. I had just about every kit in Aurora’s Prehistoric Scenes line.
Started with Snap-Tite as well as projects with heavy assistance from Dad around 9 or so.
Never actually left the hobby, though college certainly slowed things down (only got to do anything when I was home for semester breaks). 31 now - so i guess i’ve been at it for a while, even if not always particularly diligently.
started when i was 5. did a snaptite racecar. now about 8 years later after a hiatus when i was in 2nd,3rd, and 4th grade. now im going into 7th bout to turn 13 and love figures and afvs.[C=:-)]
I think I was about seven when I started (1970). I remember the first two kits which I built with my dad (probably built mostly by my dad to be honest). One was an F-104 Starfighter. I don’t remember the brand or the scale, but I think it was chromed and fairly large. The other was Revell’s ancient USS Missouri, appropriate because my dad was a midshpman aboard her.
After rhat I was pretty much on my own. I built everything from sailing ships to cars to planes and even an occaisional tank, although not too many because I hated the tracks which never melted together right. I do remember Revell’s old “Black Magic” Sherman.
I slowed down in the 1980’s, more or less dropping out of the hobby sometime before 1990. After a hiatus of almost a decade, I got back into it almost ten years ago when I was thirty-five with a rather nostalgic build of Revell’s 1/720 Arizona. In spite of a few fits and starts, I’ve been fairly consistent since.
I was 7 years old when I started…my dad was hospitalized for back surgery and he built AC kits while recovering to keep his sanity. This intrigued me along with a mail-order “Model of the Month” club, which for $6.95 I think per month, included a little newsletter and 1 kit (sometimes AC, sometimes cars, one occasion a tank) got me interested further. I committed to AC growing up and eventually had over 100 completed models hanging from my bedroom cieling (including a B-36 and B-29 which I had to save up for months to get!). When I left home for college at 16, all the models except a small handfull were disposed of in the backyard via a funeral pyre (we lived in a rural area) and the curtain fell on my model activity for 10 years until I took it back up again 5 years ago. I needed a new hobby since my previous hobby of playing league tennis competitively came to an end due to knee issues and online war gaming had me interested in armor, so I turned to the darkside. [:D]
I was 8 years old and I got the tri-coloured Matchbox F-16 in 1:72. I only got back into it three years ago after a layoff to finish highschool, got to university and get married. I am going at it very slow these days though as a little 14 month old boy can take up a lot of time! I just can’t wait to get him into this hobby!